Before taking my OAT, I constantly visited this site to read about other peoples' experience, so I thought I would share my experience as well.
Preparation:
Sitting down to study for the OAT seemed like such a daunting task. I decided in January that I would take the OAT at the end of June, but I didn't actually start studying until May 31st. I knew I wouldn't be able to study for the OAT and be taking a full course load of classes at the same time, so that is why I waited until the end of May to start studying. That gave me roughly 4 weeks to study for the OAT. I purchased the big Kaplan blue book, the Princeton Review Cracking the OAT, and Chad's videos. I didn't discover Chad's videos until after a week of studying. In total, I spent about $150 on study materials.
BIOLOGY: for bio I only studied from the Kaplan book. I literally read every page of all the bio chapters, and I only wrote down things I didn't know. This took me about 5 days to get through all of the chapters. I'm a biology major, so I knew bio would be the easiest section for me and thats why i studied it first.
GEN CHEM: I took General chemistry 2 years ago, so I absolutely remembered nothing. For this, I tried to study from the Kaplan book, but it was just too boring to read about general chemistry, and then I found Chad's videos. I watched every video on Gen Chem, and he made it so easy to learn. Concepts that I didn't understand back as a freshman taking Gen Chem were made to seem so simple. He also teaches you tips and tricks to doing all the calculations involved for Gen Chem in your head.
O CHEM: This is the section of the test that I dreaded the most. Organic I and II were my least favorite classes I have EVER taken. For this I watched some of Chad's videos to review the basics and then I tried my best to memorize the reactions at the back of the Kaplan book. I kind of thought organic was hopeless for me, so I didn't really linger on this.
PHYSICS: I just came off a year of taking Physics I and II, so this was very fresh on my mind. Before studying for this, I took 2 physics practice tests and scored fairly well, so I only memorized formulas and very basic concepts for physics. I used the Kaplan book to review concepts that were tricky to me.
RC and QR: Did not study AT ALL for either one of these sections. During the actual test, for RC I made a little outline that had a keyword from each paragraph. This was very helpful when answering the questions because I could locate which paragraph the answer was in fairly quickly. I would say about 75% of the RC were straight forward. During the test for QR, any problem I couldn't immediately solved I guessed and marked it to review later. I wanted to make sure I found all the "easy" questions I could and made sure to get those correctly. Also, utilize the calculator, its truly a life saver.
Practice Tests: I took Kaplan practice tests, the ADA.org practice test, and 1 Princeton review practice test. If you are scoring badly on the Kaplan tests, don't worry. To me, the Kaplan tests were significantly harder than the actual OAT. The ADA test was a tad bit easier than the actual test. The Princeton Review practice test was the BEST! In my opinion it was the most similar to the actual test. They also provide detailed explanations to each problem.
Taking the Test:
Test day was not as stressful as I thought it would be. My testing center was about and hour and a half away and my test was scheduled to start at noon. I sat in my car and reviewed formulas before the test, and then I got a phone call from the testing center. They said they had some cancellations that morning and I was welcome to start my test early if I liked. I felt confident I had reviewed all I could, so I began my test 30 minutes early. The test actually went by a lot faster that I thought it would. It definitely didn't feel like I was testing for 4 hours. I was on the last question of my QR section, and I realized as soon as I hit submit I would see my scores. That is the only time I truly felt nervous that day.
My OAT Scores:
Bio: 360
Gen Chem: 330
O Chem: 330
RC: 360
Physics: 300
QR: 330
TS: 330
AA: 340
Preparation:
Sitting down to study for the OAT seemed like such a daunting task. I decided in January that I would take the OAT at the end of June, but I didn't actually start studying until May 31st. I knew I wouldn't be able to study for the OAT and be taking a full course load of classes at the same time, so that is why I waited until the end of May to start studying. That gave me roughly 4 weeks to study for the OAT. I purchased the big Kaplan blue book, the Princeton Review Cracking the OAT, and Chad's videos. I didn't discover Chad's videos until after a week of studying. In total, I spent about $150 on study materials.
BIOLOGY: for bio I only studied from the Kaplan book. I literally read every page of all the bio chapters, and I only wrote down things I didn't know. This took me about 5 days to get through all of the chapters. I'm a biology major, so I knew bio would be the easiest section for me and thats why i studied it first.
GEN CHEM: I took General chemistry 2 years ago, so I absolutely remembered nothing. For this, I tried to study from the Kaplan book, but it was just too boring to read about general chemistry, and then I found Chad's videos. I watched every video on Gen Chem, and he made it so easy to learn. Concepts that I didn't understand back as a freshman taking Gen Chem were made to seem so simple. He also teaches you tips and tricks to doing all the calculations involved for Gen Chem in your head.
O CHEM: This is the section of the test that I dreaded the most. Organic I and II were my least favorite classes I have EVER taken. For this I watched some of Chad's videos to review the basics and then I tried my best to memorize the reactions at the back of the Kaplan book. I kind of thought organic was hopeless for me, so I didn't really linger on this.
PHYSICS: I just came off a year of taking Physics I and II, so this was very fresh on my mind. Before studying for this, I took 2 physics practice tests and scored fairly well, so I only memorized formulas and very basic concepts for physics. I used the Kaplan book to review concepts that were tricky to me.
RC and QR: Did not study AT ALL for either one of these sections. During the actual test, for RC I made a little outline that had a keyword from each paragraph. This was very helpful when answering the questions because I could locate which paragraph the answer was in fairly quickly. I would say about 75% of the RC were straight forward. During the test for QR, any problem I couldn't immediately solved I guessed and marked it to review later. I wanted to make sure I found all the "easy" questions I could and made sure to get those correctly. Also, utilize the calculator, its truly a life saver.
Practice Tests: I took Kaplan practice tests, the ADA.org practice test, and 1 Princeton review practice test. If you are scoring badly on the Kaplan tests, don't worry. To me, the Kaplan tests were significantly harder than the actual OAT. The ADA test was a tad bit easier than the actual test. The Princeton Review practice test was the BEST! In my opinion it was the most similar to the actual test. They also provide detailed explanations to each problem.
Taking the Test:
Test day was not as stressful as I thought it would be. My testing center was about and hour and a half away and my test was scheduled to start at noon. I sat in my car and reviewed formulas before the test, and then I got a phone call from the testing center. They said they had some cancellations that morning and I was welcome to start my test early if I liked. I felt confident I had reviewed all I could, so I began my test 30 minutes early. The test actually went by a lot faster that I thought it would. It definitely didn't feel like I was testing for 4 hours. I was on the last question of my QR section, and I realized as soon as I hit submit I would see my scores. That is the only time I truly felt nervous that day.
My OAT Scores:
Bio: 360
Gen Chem: 330
O Chem: 330
RC: 360
Physics: 300
QR: 330
TS: 330
AA: 340
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